


Touchy

by Ray_Writes



Series: Tumblr Prompts [37]
Category: Doctor Who, Doctor Who (2005)
Genre: Donna's had a hard life folks, F/M, Implied/Referenced Sexual Assault, Pre-Relationship
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-09-10
Updated: 2018-09-10
Packaged: 2019-07-10 16:07:43
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,260
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15952841
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Ray_Writes/pseuds/Ray_Writes
Summary: An accident forces Donna to open up about some of her past experiences.





	Touchy

**Author's Note:**

> Hello all! I know I've been a bit negligent in updating things in this fandom. I'm trying to get past my writer's block on the two WIPs I have going for Doctor/Donna, but in the meantime I'm going to try and get little bits like this out for you all. I've still got a fair few sentence prompts to write, so it'll probably be mostly those. At any rate, I hope you enjoy this one!

This was just so typical, wasn’t it?

Bad enough they were trapped. Bad enough it was in a cave. But it just  _ had _ to be a space cave. Of bloody course.

“We must have tripped some sort of mechanism,” the Doctor muttered, somewhere off to her left and several feet away. “Donna? You alright?”

“Oh sure, just peachy,” she spat, one hand glued to the rough wall at her back just to make sure she stayed upright. “Any chance you’ve got alien night vision?”

There was a chuckle. “Afraid not. Hold on, I’ll come to you. Probably got a torch in here somewhere, come to think of it.”

He was mumbling and rummaging around in his pockets, so Donna closed her eyes and focused on not panicking. It wasn’t that she was panicked by the lack of light; she’d just prefer to be able to  _ see _ if some space serpent was about to strike them at any given moment.

In the dark, something reached out and grasped her waist, and a spike of fear that had little to do with snakes or monsters seized her heart in turn.

“Oi!” She’d raised her hand and connected with flesh without a second thought, only to hear a pained yowl that sounded very much like Spaceman.

“Oh God!”

“ _ Blimey _ , do you always have to slap first?”

Donna was embarrassed, offended, and still very scared all at once. “Do you always have to grab unsuspecting women in the dark first?”

She was blinking in sudden torchlight the next second, and when her eyes fully adjusted she was shocked and a little horrified to see the red mark on his face. “That’s not bleeding, is it? Oh, it must have been my ring!”

“Felt like a ring,” he agreed.

“Let me see that.” It was the least she could do. Donna tugged him down to sit cross-legged on the stony floor. “Have you got a plaster or something?”

“Should do.”

It wasn’t so bad now that she’d gotten a proper look. But Donna still felt the guilt churning away where her stomach was meant to be. She hadn’t hit the Doctor in ages, not seriously or anything. Maybe the odd smack on the arm if he was getting too friendly like he’d just done — but this time had been an accident plain and simple. She supposed she’d just been too frightened to realize it was only her friend.

He’d located a plaster in his ridiculous pockets and handed it to her now. Donna took it and murmured a quiet, “Doctor, I’m sorry. I didn’t mean it.”

“Oh, that’s alright. Should’ve remembered ‘hands’,” he replied with a little grin on the end. Her own smile back was strained at best, and she kept her gaze on his cheek as she applied the plaster.

“Right, that ought to do till we can get out of here and back to the TARDIS.” She stood up and brushed off her jeans, but the Doctor didn’t look to be in any rush to join her. He was sitting still with a troubled look on his face. “Oi, Time Boy, up and at ‘em.”

He didn’t seem to hear her. Instead, he looked up and asked. “Donna, what you said about grabbing women...you don’t think that’s something  _ I’d _ do, do you?”

She blinked at him. “What do you mean?”

“Well, you got a bit nervous about the whole ‘mates’ thing, too, and when we met you thought I’d abducted you. I suppose I wonder if I — I mean, I don’t give off some sort of impression, do I?”

She could feel her face turning red and hoped to God the torchlight wasn’t that good at showing it.

“No, Spaceman.” Donna slid back down the wall to sit beside him. “It’s not  _ you _ , it’s just — well, blokes.”

“Blokes?”

“Yeah.” She forced herself to give a casual shrug of the shoulders. “Blokes I’ve heard about or met.”

“Met where?”

“Why’s where matter?” She tried to laugh. “Here and there, you know. At the pub, at the office, and the next office after that, Upton Park, Veena’s first hen night—”

“Everywhere,” the Doctor interrupted her at last.

“Sure. Probably should’ve just said that. Would’ve saved time.”

He looked sad now, that terrible sadness that he took on whenever some great injustice was revealed to him. “Donna, that’s horrible.”

“Yeah, that’s being a woman, Time Boy.”

“No, it isn’t.” There was a hard edge to his voice. “That is living in a culture that devalues you based on your physiological differences from the accepted norm. It’s not natural, and it’s wrong. Those men were wrong to hurt you.”

She was unable to say anything at first to that impassioned speech. “Well, look, hold on. I was never — I mean nothing like- like  _ that’s  _ happened, if that’s what you mean. Just someone pinches your bum on the way back from the copier or cops a feel when they pass you in a crowd. I’ve never been in any kind of pain.”

He just stared at her, and the sadness in his eyes — the sadness for her — was almost more than she could stand.

“There’s other women who’ve had it worse,” she muttered, drawing her knees up to her chest. “Younger, skinnier women. I’ve never had it as bad as them.”

“Pain is no contest, Donna.”

“Yeah,” she agreed on a breath that came out shaky. “Can we get out of here?”

“Of course.” He sprung up to his feet, the torchlight bouncing off different walls and casting even deeper shadows. “Um, Donna. The torch makes things a little better, but I’d rather we stick together as much as possible. But if that makes you uncomfortable, I completely understand.”

Bless him, it wasn’t as if she wanted to go about life with a hula-hoop sized personal space bubble around her. But she appreciated the thought.

“Can you just hold my hand?” Donna offered.

He grinned down at her and held it out. “Right.”

She took hold and let herself be pulled up to standing. With their fingers laced together, the Doctor began leading them further into the cave. Course he’d want to go have a look around the inside rather than just trying to force the rock at the front aside. Regardless, she felt safer here than most nights coming home on the bus.

“Hey, Spaceman,” she began.

“Hm?”

“You might be a bloke, but you’re a million times better than any of those blokes.”

“Well, thank you, Donna.” He smiled back at her, obviously pleased with himself.

“I mean, you could watch it,” she couldn’t help adding, recollection drawing up his mad dash to seize her by the waist in the Library. “Not that you ever mean anything by it.”

The Doctor gave a cough. “Right.”

Donna grimaced. She shouldn’t have even mentioned it. After all, wasn’t that why she’d been asked along? Because she wasn’t young and skinny, so there’d be no worries about attraction?

Oh bloody hell, she probably ought to decide whether or not she did want that sort of attention from Spaceman. Not that she was going to get it. That was a laugh.

Donna squeezed the Doctor’s hand a little tighter and told herself to stop fussing with fantasy. This was still the best relationship, romantic or not, she’d had with a man in her life.

There was an ominous growl far down the path ahead. They both froze.

“Doctor?” Donna whispered.

“Yeah?”

“Can I get a hug, too?”

He was already pulling her closer. “Only if I get one.”


End file.
